The water wont drain down the sink- HELP

[lilyplug]

I placed cooked rice down the garbage disposal , and it is no longer in the disposal, but now the water will not drain, and dirty water came out from the disposal. the garbage disposal seems to be running but it seems like the rice is clogged up.
Is this something I can fix on my own. what should i do?
If I was to call a plumber what would be the cost?

[Troy]

Read this post:

http://www.homerepairforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=292

16x80 had a good idea.

Welcome to the forum!

[householdchallenged]

quote:Originally posted by lilyplug

I placed cooked rice down the garbage disposal , and it is no longer in the disposal, but now the water will not drain, and dirty water came out from the disposal. the garbage disposal seems to be running but it seems like the rice is clogged up.
Is this something I can fix on my own. what should i do?
If I was to call a plumber what would be the cost?

What is with the rice..my son did the same thing and now when I turn on the disposal, it runs on the disposal side but the other side - the garbage comes out the drain and takes hours for the water to go down and all you see is RICE.

[LazyPup]

When I was a kid my mother used to tell us,"Eat the rice, it will stick to your ribs". Well I don't no for certain that it will stick to your ribs but I do know from first hand experience it will stick to your pipes.

Rice and Pasta are two products that will raise shear havoc with a disposal. Often the rice or bits of pasta settle in the trap and continue to expand. In the process the high starch content then works as a glue to stick it all into a formidable mess. Believe me, no one likes sticky rice or pasta, especially your plumbing pipes.

You may have a limited success by plunging the opposite sink while running the disposal but in all probability you will need to dissassemble the trap and physically clean both the trap and the cross tubes. Pay particular attention to the Tee in the line. Both the end waste and center waste kits have a baffled tee and you will probably find the majority of the clog in the baffled section of that tee.

[householdchallenged]

what tools are needed to do this? I'm not sure I have a wrench that will expand that large?

[LazyPup]

I prefer to use 10" channel lock pliers but a small pipe wrench will also work.

If you have PVC pipe the fittings should only be about 1/4 to 1/2 turn past finger tight.

[householdchallenged]

well since I don't know that kind of wrench that is. I'll just try it by hand first.

[LazyPup]

In the lower right hand corner of the attached illustration you will see and example of channel lock pliers..The size refers to the overall lenth of the tool..so 10" channel locks would be 10" from end to end.

[householdchallenged]

Hey thanks you are very handy!!!